A legislative committee today held back a sweeping measure that would have extended some job protections to rank-and-file state workers and given civil servants explicit preference for work the state needs to have done.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee held the so-called "Public Employees' Bill of Rights" by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento. The committee's action essentially killed the bill, since today is the deadline for the committee to send legislation to the Assembly floor.

Click here for more about Dickinson's Assembly Bill 1655.

The Association of California State Supervisors, a member-run organization that represents excluded state workers, is girding itself to battle Gov. Jerry Brown's four-day workweek proposal.

"We need to present the Governor and the public with facts. Specifically, we need to show how the reduced workweek will impact California taxpayers," ACSS President Arlene Espinoza said in an email. "This is your chance to fight for your career and you can do it from the comfort of your own desk."

The memo then asks for "historical proof that furloughs don't work" and "educated guesses about how the 4-day workweek won't work."

Click here to read the memo.

In a letter to members this afternoon, SEIU Local 1000 officials said that they are preparing to negotiate with Gov. Jerry Brown's administration early next month, spurred by his proposal to put state workers on a 4/9.5 workweek that would cut their hours and pay by 5 percent.

The chairs of Local 1000's nine bargaining units said that whatever concessions they negotiate will be put in a "side letter" agreement. That would avoid reopening the local's contracts.

Ahead of that, union officials are soliciting savings ideas to offer as alternatives to Brown's furloughs. Next week the local will conduct an online survey of members.

The union's bargaining team will review all of that information ahead of negotiations scheduled to start June 9. Whatever agreement is reached at the table will go to the rank and file for a ratification vote.

Here's the union's rationale for bargaining cuts:

"As the elected leaders of all nine bargaining units within Local 1000, we agreed that it's better to be aggressive participants in the effort to find solutions to achieve savings. We intend to be part of the action, not acted upon.

"We could have said 'no,' and demanded that the governor honor our contract. By staying engaged, we minimize the potential for a huge number of layoffs and even deeper cuts in vital services, like education and the programs that serve California's most needy."

Here's the entire letter:

With just 400 to 450 words for our weekly State Worker column, most of what we learn each week never sees print. Column Extras give you some of the notes, the quotes and the observations that inform what's published.

Let's be clear: Gov. Jerry Brown's 4/9.5 furlough workweek isn't a done deal.

So said Julie Chapman, the Department of Personnel Administration's acting director, during an interview that informed today's State Worker column on the long-term cost of furloughs.

As the state's top labor negotiator, Chapman said Wednesday that she is "in discussions with the unions" about how to get the 5 percent pay reduction that Brown has proposed for all 214,000 state workers under his authority.

But the talks aren't strictly about the compressed workweek idea. Union representatives have suggested "many different things," Chapman said, although she wasn't specific.

"The administration is looking to get 5 percent savings, bottom line" on employee costs, Chapman said.

Brown's four-day workweek plan would cut state payroll about $839 million in fiscal 2012-13, the administration estimates, with about $401 million of that savings to the general fund.

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PHOTO: Gov. Jerry Brown / 2010 Sacramento Bee file, Hector Amezcua

The number of state workers drawing their first pension checks in the first four months of this year is down nearly 8 percent from a year ago, according to the latest data from CalPERS.

The four-month retirement rate continues a trend set in 2011, when initial retirements for the calendar year fell 8 percent.

Last month, the number inaugural state retirees fell to 627, down 2.8 percent from April 2011.

CalPERS counts new retirement data from mid-month to mid-month. Owing to the rules that govern cost-of-living adjustments, more state workers retire at the end of the year than at any other time. Those retirements show up in the January figures.

By contrast, far fewer state workers elect to retire in February, March and April. Relatively small shifts in retirement patterns during those months can produce big swings in the year-over-year percentages.

A total 1,711 state and local government and school employees with a CalPERS pension headed for the exits in last month, up 11 percent from a year earlier. Since January, 9,776 CalPERS members have retired, down 6 percent compared with the same four-month period in 2011.

Click tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet below to toggle between tables with retirement data for state worker and for all CalPERS members.

The Senate Governance and Finance and the Senate Governmental Organization committees are meeting this morning to gather information on Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to reorganize state government.

Click here for the live video webcast on Cal Channel. The session started at 10:10 a.m. This link opens an audio feed of the session.

The California Channel also archives video.

The bipartisan Little Hoover Commission today voted 7-0 to endorse Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to reorganize state government.

The proposal calls for replacing five agencies with three, shuffling or eliminating some or all of the functions of several commissions and boards within the executive branch and folding the work of several departments into new or existing organizations. For more details and documents about the particulars, click here.

State law requires that the commission advise the Legislature on gubernatorial government reorganization initiatives. Either the Assembly or the Senate can block the proposal by majority-vote resolution within 60 days of the governor delivering the plan to lawmakers.

Otherwise, the reorganization becomes effective on the 61st day, in this case July 1. It would become operative one year later. There's no indication that there's significant opposition to Brown's plan.

Click here for more information on the Little Hoover Commission's website.

PHOTO: Stuart Drown, executive director of the Little Hoover Commission speaks at a 2011 legislative hearing. / Sacramento Bee file, Hector Amezcua.